Bright And Cheerful Fall Porch Decor

Normally I decorate my fall porch with lots of pumpkins, cornstalks, and tons of warm fall colors.

A couple of vintage thermoses or picnic baskets scattered about.

Maybe a wool blanket casually thrown over the arm of a chair.

In years past, my fall porch was just oozing with all the fall looks and feels.

But this year I wanted to celebrate fall on the porch in a simpler, more transitional way.

More like a gentle whisper of fall, rather than a full-on bombardment of fall looks.

So I'm calling this my Bright & Cheerful Fall Porch.

I've always wanted a vintage washtub for the porch. It's been on my thrifting list for at least 10 years. But when I do find them while out at the yard sales they'd either be too rusty to the point of barely standing on their own or way too expensive for my budget. 

So when I saw this reproduction one at Walmart in the spring, I snapped it up.

Yes, it's not really vintage, but definitely has the look I was going for.

(This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure policy here.)

The white enamelware tub is currently sold out but I'll link to it here in case it comes back in stock soon - White Enamelware Wash Tub Planter.

Wayfair currently sells this galvanized metal version that has a similar look, although a heftier price tag - Galvanized Wash Tub.

I chose a Black-eyed Susan plant, a croton, and an ornamental cabbage to go in the wash tub.

I love their combination of colors and that they're not your super-typical fall plants!

The sunny Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) can be planted in the ground when Christmas decorating time comes around (any day now, lol) and will come back next year since it's a perennial.

Eventually, I'll bring the colorful croton indoors and see if I can keep it alive over the winter. I've actually never had crotons on my porch in the fall. I love the colors of it, but once we get some hard freezes here in Ohio it will probably start dropping its leaves.

The cabbage absolutely loves the colder weather though. It would be perfectly content out here all winter long if not for the fact it would look odd in the Christmas porch photos setting next to Santa.

Although they don't shout FALL, I kept my geraniums on the porch in spite of their bright summer colors.

It was too soon for me to try to overwinter them in the garage (and it really only works about 50% of the time for me).

But honestly, those stoneware crocks are so darn heavy, they will probably be on my porch for every photo from now on. That large one has to weigh 50 pounds.

On my black porch rockers I put golden-yellow buffalo check pillows I found at Dollar General.

I believe they were $12 each, which is about my limit for pillows which will inevitably get blown into the bushes when a big rainstorm comes.

BTW, the porch rockers were a Walmart find from about 10 years ago and they have held up awesomely. They don't sell that exact rocker anymore but sell one fairly similar HERE.

How To Cheat A Container Garden Look

In past years I have made large fall planters for the porch with various fall blooming plants (mums, coral bells, pansies, etc). This year I wanted the look even though I didn't have a fancy urn to plant them in.

Now technically you could just fill this entire wash tub up with dirt and plant away, but I knew that would just cause the tub to get rusty faster.

I wanted it to last more than a season or two.

So the plants were removed from their nursery pots and replanted in slightly larger and sturdier pots with fresh dirt. The plants were rootbound in their garden center pots and this gives them a chance to spread out a bit.

Replanting them in larger pots will also help with watering as I can water each plant individually and avoid drowning my Rudbeckia just because my cabbage wants daily water.

Each of those individual containers was then placed inside the washtub.

If you want to see another fall planter arrangement I created for this wash tub you can find it in my Celosia Fall Container Garden article.

Have you decorated your porch for fall this year?

Are you team Bright & Cheerful or team Give Me All The Fall Vibes?